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Ecuador Says It Will Default on Its Foreign Debt

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said his nation is defaulting on its foreign debt, in a hardball move prompted as much by leftist ideology as economic distress.

Mr. Correa said Ecuador will skip a $30.6 million payment to bondholders due Monday, asserting that there are irregularities in how the debt had been contracted by an earlier administration. Mr. Correa, an economist who is close to Venezuelan president Hugo Ch&aacute;vez, lashed out at foreign creditors as "real monsters."